Abstract

This paper presents a modified national accounting system tailored to a description of Research and Development (R&D)in the national economy. The main differences with the standard national accounts are some changes in the basic concepts (e.g. own-account production of R&D is considered as capital formation) and the introduction of additional classifications. Statistics on R&D, based on the guidelines in the Frascati Manual, have to serve as a major data source. However, the Frascatie manual has some clear limiation in scope and concepts. For example, income from and expenditure on patents and licenses are ignored and no distinction is made between subsidies for R&D and purchase of R&D.